LAS VEGAS — So while they’re betting if Michael Crabtree will tweet about Richard Sherman during the Super Bowl, or if the national anthem will total more seconds than Peyton Manning’s first-half passing yards, or what color Gatorade will be poured on the winning coach, let’s all pause and genuflect at the man responsible for the proposition betting craze.

“I scored before that (during the season), you know,” Perry says now. “They called the play and I ran it.”

And Vegas hasn’t been the same since. There are many ways to look at that novelty moment of nearly three decades ago.

NFL purists see it as then-Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka snubbing the greatest Bear of all, Walter Payton, on his greatest stage. Casual fans see it as the time when that lumbering, loveable, 350-pound defensive lineman scored a meaningless touchdown — a touchdown he now says he wished Payton could have scored — in the biggest mismatch in Super Bowl history (the Bears could have scored a hundy if they wanted to), and holy cow, was that spectacularly hilarious.

Vegas sees it this way: Men — and, key point here, women — who never bet on pro football were suddenly exposed to the world of prop bets. You don’t have to know a thing about the game; you just have to choose one way or the other.

“We lost our ass on that bet,” famed Vegas bookie Jimmy Vaccaro says. “But we won in the long run.”

Here’s why: Not only have the $10 and $20 bets from Mr. and Mrs. Waterloo, Iowa, increased, so have the wagers from the big-money bettors. By the time the NFL crowns a new champion, Vegas books estimate, as much as 50 percent of the potential record $100 million-plus bet on the game will be from prop bets.

One of the big boards in Vegas, complete with propositions. (Matt Hayes photo)

From Montee Ball’s first rushing attempt (the over/under is 3.5 yards), to the total yardage of all made field goals (111.5 yards; if no field goals are made, all bets are refunded), to the crossover-sport prop bets of Red Wings goals vs. Seahawks rushing touchdowns.

“Sometimes,” says Michael Gaughan, the legendary owner of South Point Casino and the most respected name in the sports gaming business, “they overdo it a bit with the prop stuff. But people love it.”

And people make a living off it. Meet Rufus Peabody, a 28-year-old Yale economics grad — and a professional gambler. He doesn’t look like the stereotypical Vegas grinder, but don’t let the tall, wiry, baby-faced assassin fool you.

By the time the game kicks off late Sunday afternoon, Peabody will have more than $600,000 in prop bets. And he expects to make a 5-to-10-percent profit.

“If it’s anything more than that,” Peabody says, “it’s luck.”

This is what happens when quantitative statistics intermingle with sports gaming. Peabody has built his system with a process only he knows, but the foundation of that process is simply this: previous game history.

If Peyton Manning was only sacked every 8.7 times he dropped back to throw over the last two seasons in Denver, that’s a statistic that can’t be ignored. If the Seahawks threw to wide receivers 62 percent of the time in coach Pete Carroll’s three seasons, that’s a number that can’t be ignored.

There are other variables that influence the prop bets that Peabody won’t divulge, but all, too, are quantitative statistic-related. One thing overrides all: Never bet with your heart.

Peabody

“It’s entirely quantitative; I don’t use gut feelings,” Peabody said. “The best bets I make are the ones where I say, 'How would I like this?' My gut would say no, this is an awful bet. But it’s not. It basically shows you can’t trust your gut.”

Before the week is out, Peabody will travel northwest to the Reno sports books to make more bets. Some books there have higher minimums; greater risk, greater reward.

Yet one thing stays the same, one thing that has made prop bets so popular in Nevada: You’re always in the game. Even if your team is in the middle of getting blown out, there’s still action on the board.

That’s why the rush to the counter at halftime is a spectacle in and of itself in Vegas. The second half props come into play, and it’s not uncommon to see opposite bets from previous bets — knowing previous second-half bets are bound to be losers — after what has played out in the first half.

“You’ve got action until the last play of the game,” says longtime Vegas bookmaker Vinnie Magliulo. “That rush, that competition — the entertainment — is there throughout the game.”

All because a big defensive tackle with a big heart bowled over the Patriots' defense in Super Bowl XX. Gaughan says his sports books lost $100,000 on that 10-to-1 bet, but the unintended consequences far outweighed the initial hit.